SO I AM IN LOGAN RIGHT NOW

Wow, what a week, this has been fun.

SO I am in Logan right now. No, its not transfers or anything, but I got moved. Apparently there was someone waiting for a visa to go to Mexico on his mission, and Saturday night it got through, so there was a vacant spot, and some other people were getting emergency transfered, and they needed to move around people with 24 hour notice. Why they chose ME, I don't know, but Saturday night we got a call. We had just been at the Branch's rocking Mothers Day Party, which was intense, featuring a live Mariachi band (which we missed cause we had to go out and work : ( ) But we stayed and talked to the entire branch, like 200 people, and sat with investigators, and participated and stuff (they called up 8 volunteers and me and Elder Baqudano went - didnt know it was a contest where we had to identify song names and where in Latin America they were written - I called on a member to help and come sing it for me, since my knowledge of Latin American pop songs from the 70's is a little lacking....) Yeah, it was really cool, everyone was commenting how good it was to have us in the branch and how I'd probably stay there for 10 more months, and then we left and saw a missed call from the Assistants... And 24 hours later I was riding north with all my stuff. SO I'm a little bummed, didn't get to say goodbye to EVERYone, but to a lot. It was so cool seeing Carla Garcia and her kids in the classes Sunday, and she was sharing scriptures she likes (Moroni 10:3-5 she said it was a favorite) Good stuff. Leticia cried when she heard I was leaving (the lady that said we were angels), a whole ton of investigators said "WHEN I get baptized, you are coming to my baptism" which gives me a lot of confidence that they'll be ok. Jorge Pineda was still talking about how life is changing, he feels so different than he did before, and we encouraged him to pray about being baptized the 29th of May. Awesome.

But well, now I'm in Logan. Actually, covering a branch that I covered back in September! I was covering 3 at once back then, so now it's a little different, but I'm excited. We actually have the temple here in our area, and Utah State University. My companion's name is Elder Johnson, cool guy from Minnesota, easy to get along with, yup. And it looks like it'll be fun here, so we'll see how it goes. Not as many Hispanic people, but we'll find them.

SO, Bermuda trip sounds just plain not fun, just boring, how lucky that you didn't have to go to THAT Jeffrey. Sheesh, saved from the pain. Enjoy the SOL's... Relay for Life sounds cool too. I bet Jeffrey has now made famedom in Culpeper forever, I'm just so proud of my little brother... holy cow, you can be weird, Jeffrey, haha. Good job. Penelope Pits. I can only imagine.

Speaking of cancer, funny story, crazy people:

We were walking, and a guy pulled over to give us a ride. "Get in, girls!" Haha.  Ok...... so we got in, probably shouldn't have with an opener like that, and the man started driving, and said "Do you know who I am?"
"No...."
"Probably don't WANT to know who I am. Do you know what FRANKINCENSE is?"
"Uh.... the stuff they gave to Jesus?" (very weirded out by now. The man looked a little disappointed in my lack of knowledge)
 "Yes... do you know why?"
"It..... was a good gift back then?"  It was the best I could do on the spot.  So then he started to explain WHAT it really was - a sacred oil, that was used in the ancient temples, and was a gift from God to man, because the scent would bring one to a better communication with his maker. It got real quiet for a few minutes as we uh, tried to proccess that essential information and pray that this guy was sane enough to drive us where we were going.... then when we got to our place, thank heaven, and he said "Wait a minute." And pulled out a purple book, full of little vials. He carefully and reverently pulled out one called Frankincense and poured a bit in our palms. "NOW, put it on your forehead." What to do?  So I carefully dipped a finger in and reluctantly put a dab on my forehead "NO, put THAT hand on the forehead, ALL of it" So feeling a little foolish I rubbed my palm all over my forehead. Why the heck not.  Then very satisfied, he leaned back and said "There, the effects will start in a few moments. He then told us that we don't need modern medicine, that God gave us these oils to cure anything. When the world goes down, he'd have the oils. Remember that.  He said frankincense is an anti-congestant, anti-cancer, anti-depressent, and of course, we'd have better communication with the Creator. Good grief. BUT no kidding, all day every time I felt a little bummed or whatever, I sniffed my hand/ forehead, and felt happier.... high on frankincense...haha... people are so cool.

Well, I have to get going, but I just wanted to tell this story, which I hold a little more sacred, but would like to share. Back in Layton, me and Elder Baquedano stopped by a house. The man let us in, and told us about himself, his life, he was trying to stop smoking and was on day 3, and suffering a lot of temptation. We told him we'd share something from God and take his mind off it. "Now Elders, I've listened to more than 20 of you, for YEARS, and I know what you're going to share. I'll listen, but just up front, I want you to know that  I will NEVER change, there is nothing that you've ever done, or said, that has convinced me, and there is nothing you can or will say or do that will change it. That said, I will listen." We told him to look for the Spirit, and explained God is our Heavenly Father. That he sent prophets to the earth throughout time to teach us the gospel. We taught about Christ and His mission for us, and how through baptism we can be cleansed. We taught about the Apostasy of the Church, and then got to 1820. He was suffering because people were smoking outside and he could smell it. Then right before we shared the story of Joseph Smith's First Vision, his wife sat down. She had the same story and background, but decided to sit down and pay attention for a minute. We explained a little to her what we were saying, and then gave the First Vision story. Unfortunately, they were distracted by their daughter (she was crawling on them and such). Afterwards, they said they hadn't felt anything. I felt an impression to share it again. We asked them to close their eyes, and imagine now being in the woods, like the young Joseph, asking God what is the truth, and imagining what happened. As we recited the First Vision, and described the pillar of light, and God the Father and Jesus Christ descending, saying "This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him," the Spirit filled the room so intensely. SO intensley. My body trembled - not uncomfortably, but with the power, and the peace that filled us all. As they opened their eyes, they listened more intently. When we asked how they felt, the man said "Wow. I have NEVER felt that in my entire life. It felt... almost light headed.... but so good." we testified that the Spirit of God was present in that moment, and the man looked up and said firmly "I believe that. I've never believed that before, but I know that's true." We invited them to be baptized by one holding the authority of Jesus Christ's priesthood, and they said they would try to prepare themselves for the 5th of June.

I know for a fact that I am just a 20 year old who barely knows what he is doing. My companion too. We are not powerful, we are not amazing, we aren't good at teaching and we aren't good at persuading people to do anything. But I know that we are not alone - the Holy Ghost was present there. A man that was completely solid in his ways changed 180 degrees in a matter of  a few minutes. Not because of us, not cause we convinced him, but because the Spirit of God touched him and testified of the truth of what we were saying. I know that that is the ONLY way we can succeed in helping people know that this is true. It was the way I came to know this is true. Follow the Spirit.

Love you all, be good, be safe,

Elder Thelin

Hey, can you send me Henry's address? I need to tell him what to do to be a missionary.... heheh....


PS Also: the electric eels came in, with the sharks all about. Dory kept singing, and Spongebob kept worrying. Fortunatly Heidi had a bright idea. "Dory, do you still speak whale?" "Whale? I speak whale!!!" "Well, talk to them!!!!" "OK!" and Dory started shouting something that sounded dreadful, but a little whale-like. The sharks closed in, but Holly and Amy heard something approaching that sounded like noises they had heard from the movie Free Willy - "Is that... whale speak?"....